There are many varieties of caps with a visor commonly worn today, including the popular baseball cap, trucker cap, golf cap, and army fatigue cap, with different features such as having 5 or 6 panels, mesh rear portion, curved or flat bill, high or low profile, structured or nonstructured front crown, dome crown or flatter crown, fitted or with a size adjuster, etc. Although these caps may provide shading of the eyes from the blazing sun, they typically offer little protection for the back of the neck, the ears, and the sides and forward portion of the face. It is well known that prolonged exposure to intense solar rays increases the risk of getting sunburns, age spots, wrinkles, skin cancer and other skin damage. Therefore, people who participate in outdoors activities like golfing, hiking, fishing, farming and attending outdoor sporting events are taking great risk of sun damage to their face and neck even if they wear a cap. One means of protecting the face and neck from the sun is to use sunblock lotion, which some people prefer to avoid because they are greasy and messy, often stain clothes, do not last for more than a short period of time, and may contain chemicals that could potentially harm the skin after prolonged usage.
Fortunately, there is an alternative. There is extensive prior art relating to the addition of flaps or sunshields to the cap that offer some shading relief to the neck, ears and face. Proper review of prior art requires noting several important features or characteristics that may determine the usability of the sunshade cap. One main feature is adequate shading coverage by having sufficiently large sunshields. This is important because people who are out in the sun for a prolonged period of time may desire shading of not just the neck or ears, but also the sides of the face. Another feature is retractability, which is the ability to store one or more sunshields away on the cap when they are not needed. This allows the wearer to continue to wear the cap without the shading deployed, and further relieves the wearer of the inconvenience of having to carry sunshields attachments around. Another feature is the ability of the sunshield to drape over the bill, which allows more shading coverage of the forward portion of the sides of the face, especially the cheeks. Still another feature is the ability of the sunshade cap to individually target particular areas for shading as desired, since sometimes only one side of the face or only the neck requires shading. A minor feature is detachability of the sunshield, which enable the wearer to remove sunshields when not needed, and also to swap them with other sunshields.
The following prior art discloses caps with retractable shading coverage to certain limited areas. U.S. Pat. No. 822,986 to Rochet (1906) describes a covering for the nape of the neck that is retractable on a cap featuring an inner and an outer crown, with the nape covering store on top of the inner crown. U.S. Pat. No. 2,844,822 to Persico et al. (1958) describes a neck shading piece for a cap that can be folded and refracted on the side of crown. Most prior art that disclose detachable shading to the back of the neck do not offer retractability, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,095 to Koritan (1991). More recently, however, U.S. Pat. No. 8,024,818 to Davenport (2011) describes a detachable neck shading piece that is retractable by repeatedly folding and gathering the shading piece until it forms a strip for securing to the back of the crown. For protecting only the ears, U.S. Pat. No. 723,946 to Tobias (1903) describes a cap with a portion that can be folded down over the ears, and that can be retracted by folding the portion either inside or outside of the cap. U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,343 to Harbison (1994) also describes a cap with earflaps that can be retracted using a cord lock, which requires that both flaps be deployed and retracted simultaneously. U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,903 to Krystal (1984) describes a cap with an inband that is stored on the underside of the head cover and folds down to cover the ears, which also requires that both ears to be covered simultaneous. Except for mostly earmuffs, such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,149,121 to Kronenberger (1939), there are few prior art examples of earflaps that can be independently deployed or retracted, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,733 to Pospisil (1996) that describes earshading using a pair of elongated ear shades for the baseball cap.
Still other prior art discloses even greater sun protection to cover the nape of the neck, sides of the face and even the front of the face. U.S. Pat. No. 873,856 to Gordon (1907) describes a cap with one flap that protected the ears and the back of the neck, and another flap in front that included a goggle and nose guard, both retractable by folding them inside the crown, and U.S. Pat. No. 899,334 to Seitzman (1907) describes similar features. U.S. Pat. D141,256 to Dannenberg (1945) describes a cap with similar protective features except that the rear flap is retracted on top of the crown using fasteners disposed only on the flaps. U.S. Pat. No. 1,050,310 to Steinberg et al. (1911) describes a one-piece shading flap for the ears and neck that can be deployed by flipping the cap inside out. U.S. Pat. No. 1,331,701 to Fendelman (1919) describes a shield for the neck and side of the face, and another for the front of the face, both retractable on the inside of the cap. U.S. Pat. No. 2,449,633 to Albert (1948) describes a one-piece shading flap protecting the side of the face and neck that rolls up to a retracted position on top of the crown. U.S. Pat. No. 2,462,258 to Dannenberg (1949) describes variations of an earlier invented cap, this time using a baseball cap, wherein the rear flap covering the sides of the face and neck can be retracted either on the outside or inside. U.S. Pat. No. 2,897,510 to Forbes-Robinson (1959) describes a one-piece shading portion that can be retracted on the top of the crown by folding and securing with fasteners on top. U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,077 to Dondlinger (1993) describes a cap with one-piece detachable neck and face shield having its upper edge attached to the bottom back portion of the crown using loop and hook fasteners. For shading just the front of the face, U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,163 to Avey (1991) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,240,372 to Larson (2007) both disclose a hat or cap and a mask-like shading piece attached to it using releasable fasteners, but these caps are not retractable and also position the sunshield too close to the face to provide good ventilation.
There are numerous caps using a detachable sunshield, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,943 to Clement (1992), which discloses a flexible weather-shield with an elastic band that can be affixed atop any hat having a forward visor and a rear size adjuster, but most of these caps are nonretractable. Exceptions include U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,732 to Olajide Jr. (1997), which discloses a cap with a retractable hood that is also detachable, but this is also a one-piece shading system, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,789,268 and 6,802,083 to Yan (2004), which both describe a cap and detachable shade portion that may be folded and stored inside an attachable pouch. The latter, offers more coverage to the front of the face because it comprises a central portion and two wing portions that can be wrapped around the rim of the cap near the front. Most of these above-described prior art inventions share the common problem of not being able to specifically target a particular area for shading, such as the back of the neck independent of the sides of the face or the ears, because they use a one-piece sunshield to cover these areas. In order to provide independent targeted shading, the cap would need to have multiple sunshields for covering the back of the neck and the sides of the face, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,648 to Nucifora (1997), which describes a cap with multiple flaps that can be independently retracted into pockets with closure means located on the side portions of the crown. There are but a few prior art having multiple sunshields for the neck and side of the face to provide independent targeted shading, and that also share some similarities to the present invention, such as retraction of sunshields on the top surface of the crown and detachability and more, which will be discussed later on.
Many inventors have realized that shading of the forward portion of the face and cheeks is inadequate unless the shading flap drapes down from a portion of the visor or bill. There are numerous prior art disclosing a sunshield that are attached to the visor using fasteners on the visor, such as U.S. Pat. D380,591 to Kessel (1997), U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,380 to Mishal (1999), U.S. Pat. No. 6,996,852 to Cabrera (2006) and U.S. Pat. D599,533 to Yun (2009). However, since the visor is usually very stiff and thick, and covered with fabric, placing fasteners is very difficult to do and should be avoided. U.S. Pat. No. 2,869,134 to Milstein (1959) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,878,479 to Schuessler (1959) both describe a cap with a retractable flap draping from the rear of the side of the visor, thus revealing the possibility of draping a sunshield from the visor or bill without the need for fasteners on the visor. However, since both inventions do not place the forward ends of the flaps near the center of the front crown, the sunshield only drapes down from the rear of the visor and not from a forward position. Furthermore, the short longitudinal lengths of the flap on both caps results in insufficient shading to the lower part of the side of the face. U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,986 to Hall (1998) discloses a cap with one large sunshield that drapes from a forward position of the bill, and thus provides excellent sun protection to the forward portion of the face. U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,647 to Crickmore (1997) describes a flexible weather-shield accessory that can be placed on and removed from any headgear, such accessory including a visor-covering area that lies across the visor and drapes over it, thus extending coverage forward of the wearer's face. While these prior art benefit from not requiring fasteners on the visor, with some providing good face protection, they all use only one sunshield that does enable independent targeted shading of a particular side of the face or neck. Furthermore, these caps using a large sunshield for shading, especially one with an area much larger than the crown, are not retractable.
There are two prior art inventions that appears the closest to and shares many of the features of the present invention: retraction of sunshield on top of the crown, independent targeted shading, draping of the sunshield from a portion of the visor to shade more forwardly the side of the face, and detachability. U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,052 to Veridiano (2000) describes side sunshields that drape from the forward portion of the visor to provide shading along the sides of the face, particularly the front portion. The flaps are retractable and detachable, can be attached at various positions to adjust the shading coverage, and can be independent deployed. However, their attachments to the cap require placing fasteners on the visor, and also, there is no rear flap. U.S. application Ser. No. 11/049,148 by Moshier (2005) describes a cap with a pair of retractable side flaps that drape partially from the visor, and also a rear flap for protecting the neck that is retractable under the crown. There are several differences that distinguish these two prior art caps from the present invention. First, the prior art caps have sunshields that do not drape down over a forward part of the side of the visor. In Veridiano, even though the sunshields drape forwardly from the visor, they don't drape over the edge of the visor, but instead relies on fasteners on the underside of the visor to hold the forward portion of the sunshields. In Moshier, the flaps only drape from the rear of the visor. Second, both caps do not provide adequate shading because their sunshields are small, making them easier to retract onto the crown but less effective in shading the lower parts of the face, especially when the sun is shining from the side. The present invention uses sunshields that altogether exceed the area of the crown, and have greater longitudinal length, which enables them to drape lower down the side of the face. Third, both prior art caps do not have a rear sunshield that is retractable on top of the crown.
The following prior art relate to sunshields designed specifically for the front of the face under the eyes. U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,982 to Fligel (1950) describes a shield that attaches to a hooded coat using fasteners. U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,163 to Avey (1991), and U.S. Pat. No. 7,240,372 to Larson (2007) both describe a hat or cap and a mask-like shading piece attached to it using releasable fasteners, but these caps are not retractable, and they position the sunshield too close to the face to provide good ventilation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,006 to Hetz et al. (1991) describes a garment that can alternatively worn as an ascot, a neck warmer, a face and neck mask, or a visor, with two opposing side straps that extend outwardly from each of the side edges to wrap around the face, with loop and hook fasteners on the ends of the straps that interconnect. These prior art share the problem of the sunshield being worn like a mask, which might not be suitable for summertime use because placing the sunshield too close to the wearer's face without much ventilation could trap the warm breathe and make it too warm to wear for prolonged periods.
For prior art relating to a visor sleeve in one of the embodiment of this present invention, U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,773 to LaMantia (1999) describes a visor guard for covering the visor of a baseball-type cap, the guard comprising a pocket or sleeve defined by upper and lower panels, whose shapes generally conform to the shape of the bill to be covered. The sleeve is secured on the bill using a band connected to the edge of the lower panel that can be tucked under the inner sweatband of the cap. U.S. Pat. No. 6,081,933 to Partsch, IV (2000) discloses a helmet bill safety cover comprising of a crescent-shaped sleeve. The ends of an elastic strap are attached to the opposite sides of the sleeve so that the sleeve is slipped over the rigid bill of a helmet, and the strap is wrapped around the back of the helmet. U.S. Pat. No. 8,051,497 to Erhardt (2011) describes a shading apparatus that draped down over the side of the face and back of the neck, with a forward extending portion that has two pockets, one of which can be slipped over the visor or bill of a cap.
In summary, it is very difficult to find prior art that offer a shading cap that includes all of the following features: adequate shading protection, especially for the forward portion of the face, retractability, and independent targeted shading capability. Nor does prior art teach how to retract three large independently deployable sunshield members on top of the crown of the cap in a relatively neat manner. Also, prior art does not teach a cap having two side sunshields that drape down forwardly of the side of the visor to shade forwardly the side of the face without using any fasteners on the visor.